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Book Industry Communication (BIC) has appointed Ingram's Ruth Jones as chair of its new board of directors.
Jones is director of global sales and digital services at Ingram Content Group. BIC said the new board is one of a number of changes following an "extensive" governance review which focused on re-shaping BIC in order to create "an agile, responsive organisation that reflects the diversity of the current book industry and delivers a greater sense of ownership amongst the BIC membership".
It replaces both the executive and operational boards, which have now disbanded, and means BIC members will have a greater say in the organisation's strategy and schedule of work as they can now nominate a suitable representative from within their own companies for election to the new board of directors.
Speaking of her recent appointment Jones said she was "delighted" to become the new chair, adding: "The book supply chain needs to develop best practices to respond to new business and environmental challenges. It’s exciting to be a part of BIC’s focus on addressing real problems and affecting change though collaboration with its members.”
The directors of the new board also include Graham Bell, executive director at EDItEUR; Simon Ellison, merchandising director for high street at W H Smith; Gareth Jarrett, director of book publishing services at Taylor and Francis; Natalie Jones, head of programmes at CILIP; Dr Cordelia Rogerson, head of collection care and metadata management at The British Library; Fraser Tanner, managing director at Batch Ltd and a director of the Booksellers Association Group Ltd; Karina Urquhart, executive director of BIC and Jon Windus, head of product leadership, Nielsen Book.
Other governance changes at BIC include assigning greater responsibility and ownership to its five strategic committees: Green Supply Chain, Digital, Metadata, Physical and Libraries. All five committees will now report into the new board directly, and will control their own budgets.
Karina Urquhart, BIC’s executive director, said: “Given the importance of the supply chain to the book industry, and especially in these difficult times, it is vital that we give our members a greater voice in addressing the issues that can improve the efficiency of their supply chains for both business and environmental reasons. We have created the new governance structure to reflect this. Our members will now have greater influence in shaping BIC’s ongoing work and future strategic direction, which in turn impacts on the wider book industry.
"I am delighted to have the new structure and board in place, and that Ruth has agreed to accept the position of chair of the new board. I look forward to working with her and the rest of the directors over the months and years to come as we move BIC into a new era.”
BIC said there is the option to appoint further directors to the board via elections in 2022 on a date to be advised.